The Word from Singapore

ArtSingapore Goes On

Lost in the all the hullabaloo of the financial crisis and bailout, ArtSingapore opened on Oct. 10 and closes tomorrow (really almost today Singapore time.) Bloomberg carries this report from the opening with lots of interesting commentary about relative value, Indonesia and the market price for Contemporary Chinese Art. Some random quotes from the Bloomberg story (presented out of order for dramatic effect):

Daniel Komala, president and co-founder of Larasati, said the financial crisis is likely to affect the more expensive works as collectors opt instead for cheaper, emerging artists.“When a big ship like the U.S. is sinking, that would be a big danger to anybody in any business,” he said in an interview at the Oct. 3 preview. “The financial meltdown will affect the top layers. Rather than buy a $1 million painting you would probably buy a few pieces of $100,000 each.” [ . . . ]

“There’s going to be some impact, but in Asia there’s still a lot of disposable income,” said Chen Shen Po, director of ArtSingapore, Southeast Asia’s biggest art fair. “A lot of Southeast Asian artists are still very competitive in pricing and still very affordable.” [ . . .]

“For Chinese art, the price is already too high,” said John Andreas, owner of Borobudur, in an interview. “The top Chinese artists fetch $10 million compared with top Indonesian artists, who fetch only about $1 million. A lot of investors think Indonesian art is still very cheap.”